Because I Love You and You Love Me
by Coco96
Summary: He never understood why she chose him, and now that he's lost her, he may never know. All he can hope for is that, despite his mistake, she still loves him. If she does, then he has a chance to be happier than ever. If she doesn't, then he has no idea what he'll do.
1. An Unexpected Visitor (Yagyuu)

**Note: Chapters will be in third person POV, but they will follow a single character (whose name will be with the title). There will be no honorifics. Tennis isn't very important with this story; just assume that all tennis matches are still taking place whenever they're supposed to. There are some changes from the first version, all in an attempt to make the story better.**

 **Special thanks to my awesome beta, HanakoAnimeaddict.**

 **Enjoy!**

…

 **Chapter One: An Unexpected Visitor (Yagyuu)**

After school, when Yagyuu arrives at the tennis clubhouse, Niou isn't present. This is not an unusual occurrence; Niou regularly is held after class for detention due to his pranks. However, considering that he hadn't heard of anything happening, the bespectacled teen was suitably wary.

With the majority of the regulars gathered, Yukimura sends Sanada out to the courts to get the non-regulars started on their warm ups. When he returns, Yukimura begins the meeting.

"Alright, this meeting is about going over the new training regime that Renji has designed for us in preparations for the Kantou Tournament. Does anyone know where Niou is?"

Yagyuu inwardly cringes. While Yukimura's voice might sound soft and delicate, all the regulars have seen someone on the receiving end of his punishments for missing practice.

"He was in our last period, but I haven't seen him since," Marui offers.

"Niou didn't tell me he'd be missing practice, so I believe that he may just be running late," says Yagyuu when Yukimura turns to him.

"Forty-five percent chance that Masaharu is late due to being detained by a teacher. Thirty-eight percent change that he is late due to a girl. Seventeen percent chance that it is because of a prank."

Yukimura nods. "Thank you, Renji. We'll start without him then. Marui, you're first."

Yagyuu listens while Marui is being lectured about his sweets and given a rigorous training schedule to enhance his stamina. Then, Jackal is told to increase his lead weights and given a regime to better his early game. After him, Kirihara gets told off for lacking control and is scheduled for weight training.

"Yagyuu, for you I have devised a plan that I believe will –"

Yanagi's voice is cut off by a knock on the clubhouse door.

"Hm. I don't believe we were expecting anyone, were we?" Yukimura asks Yanagi.

Yanagi grabs his planner to check. He shakes his heads. "No, there isn't anything planned."

Sanada goes over to open the door. When he does, it reveals a girl of average height dressed in a Hyotei uniform.

"Um, hi. This is the clubhouse for the tennis team, right?" The girl shifts her weight from one foot to the other and then back again.

"Who are you?" Sanada crosses his arms. "You are disrupting our practice."

"Now, Gen," Yukimura chides, coming up to his fukubuchou, "that's no way to talk to a visitor of our school." He smiles at the girl. "This is the team's clubhouse. I'm Yukimura Seiichi, the captain. Is there something that you needed?"

The girl offers a small smile back. "Hi, Yukimura. I'm Kumiko Rie. And I'm really just here to return this." She holds out a Rikkai regular's jacket. "It belongs to Niou Masaharu."

Yagyuu frowns. What had Niou been doing at Hyotei? "Excuse me, Kumiko, did Niou cause trouble at Hyotei?"

"Oh," the girl laughs awkwardly, "no, no. He left it at my car last night."

"In your car? Why was Niou in your car?" Kirihara asks, staring hard at the girl.

Kumiko fidgets nervously as the Rikkai team watches her. "Well, we had a date. It was late, and I didn't want him walking home, so my driver drove him back to his house."

"Wait!" Kirihara bounds up to the girl. "You and Niou are dating?!"

"Yes?"

Yagyuu frowns at her answer. Niou hadn't told him that he'd been seeing anyone, let alone that he was in a relationship. It was odd. Niou usually told him… well, not everything but most things, the important things at the very least.

"Look," the girl worries her bottom lip, "is Masaharu here? I really just came to give him his jacket back."

The team stares back at the girl in silence. Her use of Niou's given name does not go unnoticed. Yagyuu vaguely wonders how long they've been dating, while he is busy holding down feeling of anger at Niou's silence on this matter.

Akaya is, surprisingly, the first to recover. "Niou isn't here. He's supposed to be, but he's late."

Kumiko frowns. "Darn, I was hoping… Oh well. Would it be alright with you if I waited around until he gets here? If not, I understand."

Yukimura motions for her to come into the clubhouse. "Of course. We have to wait for Niou to arrive before we can continue anyway."

She releases a breath, relieved, and beams at him. "Thank you so much. I just have let me driver know that I might be a while. He worries." Kumiko turns and starts off towards the front of the school. However, she only gets a couple feet away when she stops.

"Is something wrong, Kumiko?" Yagyuu asks, walking up next to her. He follows her gaze to where his missing doubles partner is kissing a second year. "Oh."

"Well," she laughs nervously, "this is awkward."

Yagyuu frowns. This isn't like Niou, and he knows the trickster better than anyone. The platinum haired boy didn't do cheating. He barely did dating! Yagyuu can't fit this new set of information with what he already knows about his partner.

At first, there's just the sound of rustling fabric and then, "Um… Yagyuu? Would you mind giving this to him when he's done?" Kumiko holds the jersey out to him. Her voice is soft. Her eyes are downcast.

Yagyuu grabs ahold of the yellow material and nods. "Not a problem."

The girl offers him a weak smile and begins to walk away. Yagyuu can't help but wonder if he'll ever meet her again.

"Hey, Yagyuu, where's she going?" Marui asks, stepping out of the clubhouse.

Yagyuu nods in the general direction of the trickster. Marui takes a cursory look before his eyes snap back and stare. His smile has faded.

When the redhead makes as if to head over to the couple, Yagyuu heads him off. "It's Niou's business. Even if we don't agree on the choices that he's making, we have no right to reprimand him. We're not his parents."

For a moment, it looks as if Marui is about to continue on regardless. Then he nods to bespectacled teen and satisfies himself glaring at his friend.

And, as if he could feel the glare, Niou glances over. He pulls out him cell phone in panic, takes one look at it, brushes off the girl, and runs over to his teammates. When he reaches them, he looks vaguely annoyed. "Hey, why didn't any of you guys come get me? Captain is going to let Sanada kill me for how late I am."

Although Yagyuu remains silent, Marui seems to have gotten over his earlier reservations. "What the hell, man? Why are you over there swapping spit with fangirl-what's-her-name when you have a girlfriend?"

Niou scoffs. "What girlfriend? I'm a free agent."

Yagyuu watches Niou for any tells. From the way his eyes narrow and the slight hesitation before speaking, Yagyuu knows he's lying. But he wants to know why. He turns back to Kumiko's direction; she's almost out of sight.

"Niou." His partner eyes flit over to him and then back to Marui. "Niou," he says more sharply. This time Niou's eyes stay on him. He can feel the other boy searching his face for any tells before following his gaze.

"Rie."

…

 **What do you think? A little short, I know. Dialogue, man. It takes up a lot of page space without adding a lot to the word count. Anyway, so this is the new version of the story, and I hope you like it.**


	2. Face Your Problems (Oshitari)

**Chapter Two: Face Your Problems (Oshitari)**

Yuushi stares at the girl sitting on the floor before him. When she fails to respond to that, he takes to glaring. As the minutes tick by, he begins to worry that, perhaps, she's worse off than he feared. And, in his momentary lapse of concentration, a paper ball finds itself smacking him in the face.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Yuushi gawks inelegantly at the girl.

"Don't give me that look, Oshitari Yuushi. You were glaring a hole into the side of my head. I may need your father to check to make sure I won't have any permanent damage," Rie says, laughing.

Yuushi rolls his eyes. "I'm quite sure that my father would be of little help to you. He's a surgeon; your problems require a psychiatrist."

He's rewarded with another paper ball to the head.

"Wasting paper," Yuushi chides, "very bad for the environment."

"Oh, hush. Come over here and help me with this. I don't understand a thing that Sensei was talking about today." She pushes the science book over to him.

Yuushi smiles. "I'm afraid that I cannot assist you." At Rie's confused look, he continues, "I wasn't paying attention to the lesson at all. I was too enraptured by your beauty."

Giving him a blank stare before pushing the book closer to him, Rie commands, "Yuushi, science. Now."

With a pout, he pulls the book into his lap. "Fine then. To be forever unloved then."

Rie laughs and moves to sit next to Yuushi on the couch. She curls into him and listens as he explains the history of human genetics and about how it apparently has to do with plants.

…

They don't talk about it, which is weird. It's weird because they always talk about everything. They've both known ever since they became best friends that they can always talk to each other. But they still haven't talked about it.

"Hey, Yuushi, do you think I need to get a new –"

"Why won't you talk about it?" Yuushi demands.

Rie looks aback. "Pair of shoes. Talk about what?"

Yuushi levels her with a stare. "Talk about your lousy, no good, cheat-"

"Talk about Niou? Why would we talk about Niou? Right now, we're talking about my shoes." She gestures in the direction of the front door. "Without proper shoes, I trip and fall, maybe to my death. Do you want me to die?"

He takes a minute to let her little rant sink in. Sighing, he starts, "Rie, you aren't going to die just because – Wait!" He throws her another look. "Nice try, but we were going to talk about your newly formed relationship status." When she opens her mouth to speak, he shakes his head. "Come here, and sit with me."

Complying, she tries to explain, "Yuushi, I don't want to talk about this. The whole situation makes me sad. I just want to forget it all."

Yuushi frowns and wraps his arms around the girl. "You need to talk about it, so you can get over it. If you can't talk about it with me, then whom can you talk to? Rie, it's been almost two weeks since it happened. You can't just hold onto it like this."

"I'm not holding onto anything. I'm just trying to move past it."

"You can't move past it until you deal with it."

"Yuushi, I don't want to talk about it."

"Rie, you need to come to ter-"

Rie stands abruptly. "That's it. I'm going home."

Yuushi grabs her arm as she makes for the door. "Rie, come on. Be rational for a moment."

Wrenching her arm from his grasp, she leaves.

"I'll call you tonight," Yuushi calls after her.

…

Yuushi could feel his eye start twitching. "What do you mean she's not here?"

The servant stared back at him. "My apologizes, Master Oshitari. The young miss left some time ago."

"But I just saw her this afternoon." He could feel a headache coming on.

"And when she returned to the house, she packed up some of her things. She left shortly after. Perhaps you could phone her if it's urgent."

"I tried calling her," he said through clenched teeth. "She wasn't answering, which is why I'm here." Taking a calming breath, he asks, "Where did she go?"

The servant thought for a moment before replying, "I believe she went back to the house in Osaka."

Yuushi frowns. "I see. Thank you for the information." And as an afterthought, he adds, "Have her parents call mine if they're wondering where she is." As he turns and walks back down the driveway, he pulls out his cell phone. He hits the speed dial and places the phone against his ear.

When the ringing stops, a familiar voice answers, "Yo, Yuushi. What's up?"

"Kenya, I need a favor. I need you to go over to Rie's house and see if she's there."

"Why would I do that? You're the one that lives in Tokyo with her. I'm not wasting time just cause you're too lazy to –"

Yuushi pinches the bridge of his nose in a vain attempt to ward off the headache he always gets from talking to his cousin. "No, Kenya. I need you to go to her house in Osaka."

"Oh, well why didn't you just say that?"

"I did sa-" Yuushi takes a calming breath, before replying, "Just go check and see if she's there. Quickly, it's important, and text me with what you find out." Yuushi hangs up before Kenya can respond.

Finally reaching his home, Yuushi heads to his room and begins packing. He packs a week's worth of clothing and toiletries since he doesn't know how unreasonable Rie will be. However, considering she skipped town, he guesses very.

His phone buzzes in his pocket. Pulling it out, he sees a message from his cousin confirming that Rie is at her old home.

Grabbing ahold of his bag, he pens a quick note to his parents. He keeps it simple, saying he and Rie were in Osaka because she missed Kenya. A lie, but a believable lie. Plus, it has the added bonus of being Rie's idea, and his parents never could stay mad at her.

With all the details accounted for, he leaves his house and makes for the train station. If he's lucky, he might just catch the next train to Osaka.

…

After knocking on the front door turned into pounding on it, Yuushi thinks that he should perhaps come up with another way to get Rie's attention. Currently, he's throwing little pebbles at her window. Also, he was loudly talking (no it's not shouting, but thank you anyway, nosy neighbors) at aforementioned window.

"Rie, open the door!" Another pebble gets thrown. "Rie!" Pebble. "I'll call Gakuto and have him come up here and jump through a window!" Pebble. "I'll have Kabaji break down the door!" Pebble. "Rie!" Pebble. Pebble. "I'll call Atobe!"

"I'm sure he'd get a kick out of that."

Yuushi just barely keeps from turning and throwing the next pebble at Kenya. "What do you want?"

Kenya laughs. "Just walking this cute girl home."

Cute girl? Yuushi whips around to face Kenya and the girl he'd been looking for. "Rie!"

She offers him a small, nervous smile. "Hey, Yuushi. What um – what are you doing here?"

Yuushi takes a breath. "Rie, let's go inside and talk. Kenya, you can leave." When it looks like his cousin is going to protest, he moves Rie towards the front door and whispers, "It's about Niou."

Kenya stops for a moment before nodding then turning to walk away. Yuushi lets out a relived breath. If there was one thing the two cousins agreed on it was that Niou wasn't good enough for Rie.

Rie sighs, "Are you coming?" She walks in and leaves the door ajar for Yuushi to follow.

Yuushi closes the door behind him and enters the familiar living room. The pictures on the cabinets haven't changed, none of them showing Rie after the age twelve. Said girl was sitting on the couch looking resigned.

"I don't need a lecture, Yuushi," Rie cuts in when Yuushi opens his mouth to speak. "And I know you're mad at me."

Yuushi sits next to her and replies, "Why didn't you come talk to me?"

Leaning against him, she sighs. "It's really complicated, Yuushi. I don't even know how I feel about the whole thing. You know what I mean?" She moves so she can look at him. "A part of me is upset that he cheated on me, but another part of me feels… not upset because it's him."

"Rie, sweetie," he puts his arm around her, "you aren't making complete sense. You have every right to be one hundred percent upset with him. You don't have to be understanding about it at all. What Niou did was wrong. He's a bad guy, and you could do better."

"Well, what do I do now?"

"You have to get over him. You have to work through your feelings instead of just ignoring them."

Rie intertwines their fingers. "No more avoiding?"

"No more avoiding."

"Okay, Yuushi, I'll try."

Yuushi smiles and places a kiss on her temple. "That's all I ask."

…

When Yuushi arrives at afternoon practice, three things alert him to something being wrong. Firstly, Gakuto is silent, not quiet but completely silent. Secondly, the regulars are gathered together as the non-regulars were during light exercise. And lastly, Rie is with the regulars on the court and is teary eyed.

"Is the apocalypse finally here?" Yuushi asks, walking up to his friends.

Gakuto perks up at the sound of his voice. "Hey, Yuushi! Tell Rie she's not allowed to leave!"

"Leave?" He turns to the girl. "Where are you going? I thought we worked all of this out."

"We did. You said I had to face what happened, and I'm going to," Rie replies as she avoids looking at her best friend.

"And?"

"And," Atobe cuts in, "she's transferring to Rikkai. All thanks to your brilliant advice."

Yuushi bites back the smart remark he wants to throw at the heir. Priorities. "Rie, what's he talking about?"

Rie fidgets under all eight stares. "I'm facing my problem. A problem that's at Rikkai."

"I didn't mean you should transfer."

"You said I should fa-"

"I know what I said!"

The regulars stare at him. Yuushi isn't known for losing his cool, in public at least. But this is important; this is Rie. And Yuushi knows that, even though they drive him mad sometimes, he can trust the regulars enough to be himself.

Taking a deep breath, he continues, "Rie, you know that I only want the –"

"Atobe, shouldn't you guys be practicing? Nationals are coming up."

Atobe takes a moment to place his hand over his face and do his 'insight' before nodding. "Yes, let's begin practice. The non-regulars should be warmed up enough."

Yuushi stays back as the other regulars start warming up. He moves towards Rie to finish talking to her when Atobe steps in his way.

"Kabaji, go escort Rie to her car."

"Usu."

"And, Oshitari, come join practice."

Yuushi grits his teeth and follows his nosy, meddlesome captain.

…

The non-regulars are long gone; Atobe required the regulars to stay because they got a late start to practice. His Highness, of course, deemed himself too busy to stay any later for practice. (It's not like he practiced anyway, as usual.) Atobe left the keys in Yuushi's care with the order to lock up when everyone has left.

Yuushi seethes and effectively scares the other regulars to hurry and exit the clubhouse. Gakuto doesn't even wait for him, opting to instead help Shishido lug Jirou home.

Alone in the empty room, Yuushi grabs his belongings and makes for the door. He stops when an envelope falls from his bag. The boy picks it up and opens it, revealing a long worded monologue from one of the biggest divas he knows.

And he thinks that maybe, just maybe, he'll let Atobe live after all.


End file.
